


The Princess' Shado

by ThaliaGrace318



Category: Original Work
Genre: Sisterly Love, Siterly betrayal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-07 21:34:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16416377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThaliaGrace318/pseuds/ThaliaGrace318
Summary: The shadows is a creature of darkness and cold roaming as it pleases in the dark of the night. Until it found itself bound in chains by a cruel mistress. Forced to take a human shape, it does the bidding of a princess looking to take her older sister's crown. When turmoil erupts, the youngest of the three sisters finds herself running from her home, yet danger will be on her like a shadow.





	The Princess' Shado

The crowd in the tavern was exceptionally raucous tonight. The young tavern girl went about her work serving drinks as evening passed into night without any sign of the festivities quieting down. The knife she kept strapped to her leg under her skirts comforted her only a little as she dodged yet another set of groping hands while weaving her way through the tables to collect an order from the bar. She blew out a tired sigh; her feet ached from working the tavern all day. They should have closed their doors hours ago. The girl looked across the room at the reason for her late night of work. A rich nobleman and his party had ridden into their village to stop for the night before continuing onto the city and the royal palace in the morning. He father, the owner of the tavern, would never turn away such a man, or risk offending him by closing at a reasonable hour. The girl hoped that her father would not be among the drunkards when the night finally ended.

The serving girl studied the man from across the room while she waited for her order. He was quite handsome, with black locks, a strong jaw and fine clothes. He wore a royal blue blazer, the colour allowed only to those of his rank. Drunken laughter rang out from his table as he regaled the people in his orbit with some supposedly heroic tale. She could see his smile from across the room; it was the kind of disarming smile that had probably charmed many a girl into his bed, highborn and common alike.

“Girly!” She jumped as an annoyed voice snapped behind her. She had been staring too long; the barman glared at her impatiently, the drinks he’d prepared already set on her tray.

She picked up the tray, balancing it with skilled practice, and made her way to one of the tables near the middle of the room. The men were regulars from the village who were taking advantage of the opportunity to avoid going home to their wives while the bar was open late. They ignored her as she set their drinks down in front of them. They were too busy gossiping like old maids about the noble visitor in their midst. From what she overheard, the nobleman was on his way to the palace for the purpose of meeting the Princess and possibly arranging a betrothal.

Everyone, high- or lowborn, knew that the Princess had recently come of age, and that her father the King was eager to secure a new alliance that would allow the kingdom to prosper. Talk around the village was that a royal wedding could not be far off. The Princess was said to be fair in both appearance and demeanor. Her beauty was well known in every province. Artists had come from far kingdoms to paint portraits of this angel. Any man would be lucky to have her.

Though, as the serving girl thought about it, she didn’t know how lucky the Princess would be with this man. Working in her father’s tavern, the young woman had seen all kinds as they passed through. From the gentlemen who stopped in for a warm meal; labourers who simple needed a stiff drink after a hard day; letchers who grabbed at any skirt that came within easy reach. And the odd highborn noble who traveled through their humble village from time to time as it was on the main road to and from the city. She had seen enough to know that while the charming white smile of a nobleman could be enough to entice a girl, that smile vanished when he was done with her and cast her aside before moving on. Glancing back at the far table, she thought that this man was no different as he playfully tugged on the arm of one of the other serving girls and she giggled as he pulled her onto his lap.

But then again, what did she know of the highborn. Perhaps he was better behaved among his own kind. After all, why play the gentleman around inconsequential commoners. She turned away from the rowdy sight to deliver the last drink on her tray. It was meant for a single patron sitting alone at a table in the corner. The slight figure was hunched over the table, hidden by a dark cloak that seemed to blend into the shadows. This was certainly no noble, nor anyone that she recognized from town. The stranger kept the cloak’s hood pulled low. The serving girl couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman as she set the drink down.

“Anything else?” the girl asked hesitantly, feeling a chill of unease.

The cloaked figure shook its head soundlessly, and reached out an arm, the sleeve of the black cloak covering its hand. Two coins dropped to the table. The girl picked up the coins and shivered at the cold that shot through her hand. The cold intensified as the cloak turned towards her. She could not see a face, but something peered at her from the dark hood, something that held her frozen in its gaze. Her breath stopped as she felt something like…like a snake slithering through her thoughts. Her heart picked up in fear and her hands shook as she felt something sliding against her consciousness.

Her mind grew foggy.

As suddenly as it started, the invasive feeling stopped. She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding as the hood turned away, releasing her. She scurried away from the table quickly.

Looking around the tavern she was surprised to see that many of the taverns patrons had left, most taking their horses and carriages to lodgings elsewhere in the village, while some retired to the rooms above the tavern that they had paid for. How long had she been standing there, next to the stranger cloaked in shadows? She glanced at the table in the corner, and saw that the stranger was gone, the drink left on the table untouched. She shivered, feeling as though a shadow still clung to her. What had just happened? Should she tell her father? No, he would only think that she was a simple girl who’d lost her senses. The last of the patrons cleared out and the young tavern girl tried to shake off her strange encounter as she cleaned up for the night.

Unknown to her, the stranger in the shadows hadn’t left, but had simple withdrawn deeper into the darkness, waiting. The last of the tavern’s patrons dispersed, the serving girls and the bar keep closed and locked the doors and windows, and the tavern owner’s daughter helped her father toddle drunkenly to his room in back. Only when the lights had been put out, everyone turned in for the night and all was quiet and still did the shadow stir, moving easily through the darkness to the stairs leading to the rooms above the tavern. The shadow glided down the hall and slipped under the door of the room that the serving girl’s mind had shown the noble man would be staying in. Once in the room the shadow drifted toward the bed where it sensed that two figures lay instead on one. One was the man it sought; the other, a girl of no real consequence to either of them.

Still, the shadow took a moment to slip within the girl’s mind, unguarded in her slumber. It saw nothing that interested it – just a simple girl with little in her life who dreamed that a rich man might come and take her away. The shadow pressed against her mind, ensuring that she wouldn’t wake, and then withdrew from her, instead reached for the man. Without the benefit of what the humans thought of as sight, the shadow used its own sense to be certain that this was the one it sought. Yes, this was the one, the noble man from the East City on his way to the palace to meet the Princess.

He would not get there.

The shadow willed itself into a more solid form, much as it had while sitting at the table in the tavern – a slight human shape hidden in a cloak of shadows. The sleeve of the cloak reached out with a black bladed knife grasped in an unseen hand. With a quick slash, the blade cut across the man’s throat. Dark red arterial blood flowed from the wound, drenching his fine clothes as well as his still sleeping partner. The shadow had ensured that the girl would not wake until morning; and the man would not awaken at all.

The shadow reached for the girl, setting the knife in her hand, and again entered the edge of her dreams, planting a seed that the young woman would herself not be able to separate from truth: a rich man had come to the tavern where she worked and invited her to his bed promising her a better life and when she learned that his promises were lies she’d used the knife in her anger. No one would look beyond this room for the truth. Simple people liked simple answers. No one would question how this wisp of a girl had overpowered a man, or where she’d even gotten such a knife.

Its work done, the shadow faded from its solid form back into one of darkness and retreated out through the window, seeping through the cracks into the night.

XXXXX

Princess Deidra sat before her vanity mirrors while her ladies attended to her, preparing her for bed. She wore a robe of the finest royal red. The dress she’d worn to the banquet had already been removed and taken to be cleaned, and her shoes and jewelry were put away. All but the gold necklace she wore with the onyx stone hanging from it, which she never removed. Her ladies made idle conversation as they worked. They asked how she enjoyed the banquet, if everything was to her liking, and she wove them a tale of the glittering ballroom with many finely dressed men and women who danced into the night.

The youngest of her attendants, a young girl called Ailey who was new to the palace, was so caught up with the beautiful picture painted by the Princess’ words that she momentarily forgot her task of pulling the hair pins from the Princess’ elaborate hairstyle.

“Ow,” Princess Deidra protested as something tugged at her hair.

“T-t-terribly sorry your highness,” Ailey said in a high, nervous voice

“Do watch what you’re doing,” the Princess instructed.

“I-I’m sorry,” Ailey said again. “It got caught in your necklace. Perhaps it would be easier if you took it off-”

“No,” the Princess snapped. Ailey flinched from her sharp tone and bowed her head. “Continue,” the Princess instructed in a gentler voice.

Ailey looked up hesitantly. Princess Deidra caught her eye in the reflection of the mirror and smiled, putting the girl at easy as she removed the last of the hair pins. Ailey carefully brushed out the Princess’ hair while the other ladies prepared her bath. Princess Deidra observed the girl’s nervous actions in the mirror. This young thing had been sent to the palace to work when her family could not repay the debts they owed. The Princess had seen her working in the gardens one morning, being snapped at by the caretaker while trying to carry a sack far too big for her. That same day she’d had Ailey brought to her chambers to become one of her ladies. The girl always seemed terrified of making a mistake and displeasing the Princess. However, knowing that it was her nervousness that would lead to mistakes, Princess Deidra thought it best for the girl to relax.

“Tell me about yourself Ailey, about your family,” the Princess said in a soft voice so that it wouldn’t come out as an order.

“Wh...What would you like to know?” Ailey stammered, not sure if speaking about her home might get her or her family into trouble. “Your highness,” she added hurriedly.

Deidra smiled reassuringly, “Do you have brothers or sisters?”

Ailey hesitantly began to tell the Princess about her little twin brothers that she adored. As Princess Deidra encouraged her to speak, her nervous stammer fell away and the words came easier. Many attending ladies who served royalty were discouraged from speaking so familiarly with their betters, but Princess Deidra allowed and even encouraged them to speak, at least in the privacy of her chambers. The Princess spoke with them almost as a friend would. To Ailey it seemed that Princess Deidra was as kind and fair as she was said to be.

When her bath was ready for her, Ailey twisted her hair up into a bun and Princess Deidra stood and walked into the bathing room. Many rooms in the palace were lit by electric lights, but the bathing room was swathed in candlelight. The bath could hold ten people. It was carved out of the marble floor and was filled with scented water deep enough to stand in and have the water come to one’s chest. Petals of natural herbs that were said to relax and rejuvenate the skin were spread across the surface. Her ladies averted their eyes as she shed her robe and stepped into the mixture, sighing as the warm water enveloped her and settling herself on a ledge that allowed the water to cover her shoulders.

“You must be excited to meet the new Lord arriving tomorrow,” Mag asked, setting a cushion behind the Princess’ head as she leaned back against the edge of the bath.

“Yes, it is exciting,” the Princess said absently as she closed her eyes.

She let her ladies go on giggling and discussing the arrival of the new guest to the palace. A rich lord from the East City, whom the King was hoping would take a liking to his daughter. Having a claim to the riches of the East City would be a boon that the King could not pass up, for the good of his kingdom – the wealth could be spread throughout the outland between the cities, those villages and towns that were not protected by a city’s walls. As a Princess it was her duty to see to the good of the kingdom.

And of course it couldn’t be her sister, the Princess Alexandra, who was to meet this lord. As future Queen, Alexandra was already betrothed to marry the new King of another land. Once Alexa came into her crown, they would unite the two neighbouring kingdoms in an unbreakable alliance. The joined kingdoms would then be able to share resources that the other did not have, and would also present a strength that would ward off any threat of war from the lands across the sea.

XX

In a form that was no more substance than air, the shadow moved swiftly over the dark roads and field, faster than any human could have. It travelled away from the village with the tavern where the nobleman had met his fate, and now moved toward the city with the palace where the Princess awaited hers. The city’s gates were closed after nightfall, but the shadow slipped through the doors and bars, past the guards leaving no more sign of its passage other than a chill in the air and a dimming in the torchlight. It wove through the streets of the city sending a chill down the spine of any late night stragglers whose shadows it happened to cross and sending them scurrying to their homes.

Reaching the palace, the shadow did not hesitate; it slipped past guards without a sound and started gliding its way up the outer wall. It went from window to window, stopping for no more than a few seconds to sense the humans inside as it searched. At one window it paused as its sense flickered over something familiar. Inside the room lay the content mind of a small human, a child. The shadow lingered longer, tasting the child’s peace of mind as another human sat beside it. The older human, the Princess Alexandra, held love for the child, her sister, the young Princess Katerina.

The shadow felt the peace that they held in this moment and wanted to linger, to seep its way inside and soak in it, though that would mean draining much of that peace form their minds. The shadow felt a tug, something pulling at it, and knew that the one it sought was near. It continued on its way until at last it found the right window. The palace windows were far better built than those in the tavern. With no cracks to seep through, the shadow forced it open and slid inside, slipping into a corner of the candlelit room. Human voices gasped at the unseen intrusion. One moved to the window to close it, and shivered as she stepped too close to the corner that the shadow clung to.

And there was the Princess Deidra.

Her eyes scanned the room looking for the intrusion as she sat in the water. If her eyes lingered a second longer on the corner that had suddenly gone darker than the rest as the nearest candles flickered out, she gave no indication of it as she ordered the other humans out. The shadow observed her, alone and unprotected, vulnerable.

It felt another one of its black blade knives take form…

XX

Princess Deidra breathed in the light aroma of her bath oils and felt herself relax and begin to drift as the warm water lulled her. A chill suddenly filled the room as a window blew open as if by a strong wind. But the air was still. All the same, the ladies all felt a shiver run down their spines. Ailey quickly went to push the window closed. The Princess opened her eyes and sat up in her bath, her eyes searching the room.

“I’ll fetch some more hot water, shall I?” asked Mag.

“No,” the Princess said sharply, “Leave me.”

Of her ladies, Mag had been with her longest and knew her habits. She saw that the Princess was turning the stone in her necklace over; she usually did this when she wished to be alone for some reason. Mag shooed the other ladies from the room and after casting a glance back at the Princess followed them out, closing the door behind her.

After hearing the click of the door Princess Deidra looked to the corner of the room where a patch of darkness seemed to swallow up the flickering candle light. “Show yourself.”

The shadow stepped out of the darkness that it clung to, once again appearing as nothing more than a vaguely human shape hidden by a shadowy cloak. The Princess saw the black blade knife it carried and though it had no discernable eyes, she felt its gaze lock on her.

“Would you like to use that knife on me?” she asked. And then she smiled sweetly.

The shadow felt something tear through it, and found itself on its hands and knees at the edge of the bath, forced into a human form by the power in the stone that the Princess held. The black blade knife fell to the floor without making a sound. In its true form, the shadow didn’t know pain; it knew the discomfort of being chased away by light that it couldn’t overcome, but not pain. In this, a body of flesh and blood, breathing and feeling, it knew pain. It knew pain as it was torn away and cut off from the darkness that was its home.

Ragged breaths moved through its lungs as its body shook. Though it was blind even with human eyes, the shadow could sense the water before it as it crouched at the edge of the bath. It reached out an arm – it had an arm, hands, fingers – and touched its palm to the water. It drew back quickly from the unfamiliar, wet substance, and snarled at it. A tinkling laugh coughed its attention, and the shadow’s head shot up. The Princess was lying back in the water with her head on a cushion, watching. Yes, the shadow knew pain…and anger. This human before it was the one who had taught it these things.

The shadow’s eyes which now were clouded with black film moved from the Princess’ face to the stone she wore. These eyes might not allow it to see in the way that humans did, but it believed its own sense to be more than sufficient and it sensed what was held within the stone. In the shadow’s presence the stone seemed to emit a dark glow as something swirled within it wanting to get out. The threads of gold woven around it kept it caged.

Apparently bored with waiting, Princess Deidra grasped the stone again. The shadow hissed as it was forced to sit back on its heels with its hands on its knees by the Princess’ will.

“Is it done?” the Princess asked.

The shadow knew what she was asking and reached for her mind to show her what had been done. It hit the familiar barrier that it always encountered with this human. The Princess smirked as she felt it trying to find a way into her thoughts. She knew it wouldn’t succeed, though she still clutched the stone in her hand to be sure.

“Speak,” she ordered.

The shadow wanted to snarl, but was unable to. The Princess could stop it from manipulating her thoughts while still allowing it to show her images, but she blocked it out entirely. The shadow didn’t need to see her thoughts to know that the Princess wanted it to speak simply because she knew that it did not like speaking with human words, a human tongue. But still it spoke, the stone’s hold compelling it to. Its speech was stilted, sometimes disjointed, as it was still unfamiliar with communicating in this way. It told the Princess of how it had found the man on the road and followed him to the tavern, how it had seen in the mind of the serving girl and others in the tavern that this was the man it sought, the Lord on his way to the palace. And it told her of how it killed him and left the knife with the girl in his bed.

“Good,” said Princess Deidra with a satisfied nod.

That was one obstacle out of her way. And she’d bought herself more time. The royal family might need an alliance to help the kingdom, but she had her own plans to secure the kingdom – Plans that didn’t involve her being traded away to some lowly Lord. No, she had her sights set higher. Like on a crown perhaps.

She rose from her bath. As she did, the shadow looked to the black blade knife on the floor. How it would like to feed this human’s blood to one of its knives. But that was impossible. Though the shadow knew that the stone only controlled it and no other, as long as the Princess held it no shadow could touch her. Looking back to the human, the shadow followed the Princess’ movements as she pulled on her robe.

Princess Deidra gazed into her mirror that filled half the wall. She held herself tall, shoulders back, head held high. Why should Alexa take the throne simple because she was the eldest? Alexa may be well learned, elegant and graceful, but she lacked the will to do whatever needed to be done. Deidra did not. The Princess whom all thought of as a kind and fair yet somewhat naïve girl had had the man she might be engaged to killed in his sleep by a creature unseen and unheard. And she felt not a twinge of guilt. She would do what she had to do to secure her future – that is, her kingdom’s future. And it would be her kingdom. She could outsmart those around her who underestimated her. She could make people love her, and then use that love as a weapon.

Yes, she would make a far better Queen than her sister.

Deidra looked back at the shadow, still kneeling docilely beside the bath. Its blind eyes were looking at her. She lifted her chin, looking down her nose at it. Through a bit of chance and luck, and perhaps maybe fate, she held the means to bring this creature to heel, this rear aberration that could bring madness, cold and death wherever it went. Even in the form of a human the shadow gave off a chill. Deidra flicked a toe into the bathe water and yes, while it had been almost steaming a minute ago, it had now gone completely cold.

“Shado,” the Princess said it as a name. The shadow flicked its head irritably – it had no name; names were human nonsense. “Come here,” she commanded.

She could compel the shadow to do simple tasks through the stone without speaking, but she liked giving it orders. It stood and walked to stand in front of her and she could feel the chill that emanated from it. More than that, she could feel what the shadow felt, transmitted to her through the stone. It wanted to kill her. It hated her. And she loved how much it hated her. That it could hate her so and still have no power to defy her gave her a thrill. She raised a hand and gently rested it on the shadow’s cheek. She felt a soundless growl vibrate through it, and through the stone.

Princess Deidra laughed softly and looked over her pet. She had seen it take different forms than the one it held now. The shadow itself was neither male nor female, but the body it now wore was that of a girl the same age as the Princess, and as dark as the Princess was fair. Where Deidra had light skin so pale it seemed to glow and hair so blonde as to almost be white, the shadow had ebony, almost black skin, and hair darker than ink that fell across its eyes. Thin bands of woven gold circled its neck, wrists and ankles, and despite their delicate appearance they kept the shadow bound more securely than any shackles. The shadow would not be able to return to the darkness that was its home until the Princess allowed it.

The Princess turned away and walked into the next room, her sleeping chambers, and the shadow followed, tethered by the pull of the stone. Or more accurately, by what was contained within the stone. The strange sensation in its chest, a human heartbeat, pulsed in time with the soft glowing light that it emitted. The shadow felt it as the Princess turned the stone over in her hand; when she grasped it and held it tightly, it felt like a noose around its neck.

The shadow felt these things because what was contained within the stone was a piece of the shadow itself.


End file.
